sometimes you just gotta roll with it.

oh the joy of sushi rolling! it really is pretty darn simple, even a bird can do it with a tiger watching. it's all about prep and a sharp knife, so if you've got a sous chef hiding around somewhere you are absolutely golden. otherwise, get ready to slice and dice - well, okay just slice and slice. and slice a little more. there are a few basic things to know about sushi rolling. first of all, you want to use sushi rice and you want to prepare it with the rice:water ratio on its package, it's too starchy to drain off excess water if you guesstimate quantities and use too much water and it becomes paste. the second key to rolling sushi is that once the rice has been steamed, you want to add rice vinegar immediately, while it is still hot. this will make it the right consistency to spread and use in your rolls. use plenty of vinegar, stir it in and coat all of the rice, and allow it to cool before you proceed with rolling. i allow it to cool on the counter before i transfer it to the fridge. the third thing you want to know is that a piece of plastic wrap between the nori and the bamboo rolling mat will make rolling easier and prevent the roll from ever sticking to the mat. when rolling your sushi, make it tight, don't be afraid to really put some pressure on it, you want the roll to be solid and tight so that when you slice it, it doesn't fall apart. and the most important thing about making sushi rolls is that you have to have a clean, sharp knife in order to cut. keep a small bowl of cold water next to you as you work. the duller the knife, the more likely you will be rinsing your knife and wiping it clean between each slice. if the blade is dull or has sticky starchy residue from the nori and rice, it won't slice through, your roll will tear, things will fall apart, it will be a messy situation. there will probably be cursing. quite possibly tears. definitely frustration. if you have a clean sharp knife though, it's easypeasy, you just slice right through the roll and leave a trail of perfect little pieces of maki.

what you need to roll sushi:

sushi rice

water

rice vinegar

bamboo mat

bamboo or plastic paddle or spatula (to spread rice on the nori)

sheets of nori

plastic wrap

sharp clean knife

pickled ginger (optional)

wasabi (optional)

soy sauce (optional)

things i like to roll in sushi:

cucumbers

asparagus (i blanch them first)

oshinko

red peppers

yellow peppers

baby corn

bamboo shoots

water chestnuts

avocado

kimchi

jicama

a basic bird's eye view to rolling sushi

prepare your sushi rice, add rice vinegar, cool

prepare the ingredients for your roll - clean and slice and anything else you need to do them

spread a sheet of plastic wrap over your bamboo mat

place a piece of nori on top of the plastic wrap

spread a thin layer of rice across the nori

line ingredients up across nori horizontally (in relation to you), starting in the center and keeping centered

before you roll, dab your finger in your water bowl and lightly wet the edge of the nori closest to you and farthest from you - this will help the nori seal to itself

now you are ready to roll - bring the side of the nori closest to you up and over the contents, apply some pressure and create seal where it meets the other side, then roll so it is closed entirely, make it tight and always roll away from you. once roll is secured, unroll bamboo mat, remove from plastic wrap, transfer to cutting board

using the sharpest knife you have, slice your sushi roll

enjoy!

heart skips a beet.

that's right. something that can turn your pee red is actually really, really good for you. really.

i feel like there's no way to go about this without sounding like an over zealous bragging mother, but beets are a sort of wonder food and the list of their health benefits is extensive. beets have nutrients that help protect against coronary artery disease and stroke, birth defects, and certain cancers (particularly colon cancer), lower cholesterol levels, promote nervous system health (especially for the eyes), have anti-aging benefits, and, to top it all off, are excellent detoxifiers. the betalin pigments in beets trigger "hook up" activity in the body's phase 2 detoxification process. this is the metabolic step in which our body "hooks up" toxic substances with small nutrient groups so that they become neutralized, water-soluble & get excreted in our urine. what makes beets so special is that most of their health benefits are unique, in terms of the nutrients from the beet that deliver or contribute to the health benefit. there is more than one way to skin a cat, but many vegetables skin their cats the same way. beets, those ingenious little buggers, have their own cat skinning tricks. most vegetables give us antioxidants through beta-carotene, but beets contain two different antioxidant careotenoids that are not nearly as common in other vegetables, called lutein and zeaxanthin. similarly, their red color comes not from anthocyanins, as is the case for most distinctly red vegetables, but from unique phytonutrients called betalains. and variety, it is said, is the spice of life. so, the more types of antioxidants and nutrients we can get, the better for our bodies. each of them interacts with our bodies and our cells in a different way, no matter how slight, and that will affect exactly what they do and how, and, in turn, the way it benefits our health.

and the red pee thing has a name: beeturia. it is nothing to be alarmed about, it's simply a sign of the genetic inability to break down the beta-cyanin pigment in the beet. roughly 10-15% of the population fall into that category.

okay, so the early bird has laid the case that beets are a must have for low calorie high fiber detoxifying super cardiovascular nutrition. but i think many of us have yet to embrace the beet because they seem cumbersome and dirty when bought fresh or we have antiquated notions of them pickled in jars, on our grandparents' plates, or in some soup called borscht. hesitate no longer. they are super delicious and super easy. all you need is a little bit of time, the effort is minimal, the skill level low. get some beets and roast them.

easy peasy beet roasting. 101.

preheat oven to 375, make sure rack is in the middle of the oven.

if the beets still have greens attached, cut off the greens, clean them and set them aside. they have their own amazing nutritional value and are absolutely edible.

wash the beets.

wrap them in aluminum foil (you can wrap them together in a single foil packet with all the beets or you can wrap them individually).

place them in the oven, on a baking sheet if you have it, or directly on the rack if you don't.

roasting will take anywhere from 45-90 minutes, depending on the size and the beet itself. to test, poke them with a fork (you don't remove the foil), they are done when the fork goes into the beet without any resistance.

when beets are done, remove from oven.

unwrap the beets and peel them as you rinse them under cold water. the roasting loosens the skin enough that it slips off easily and the water from the faucet cools the beets and helps keep the red staining on the hands to a minimum.

and there you have it - roasted beets.

so roast those beets and keep being naughty, no one is really making a list or checking it twice, and the beets will detoxify all your sins.

the little orange that could.

something happens this time of year in the produce department that makes my heart skip a beat. a very special little orange makes an appearance. and, for a brief moment in time, i find myself in citrus heaven. welcome, back, satsuma, i have missed you.

what is a satsuma? you may also see it labeled simply as a mandarin or as a stem & leaf mandarin. it all depends on where you are shopping. well, a satsuma is a mandarin orange. and it usually still has a little bit of stem and quite possibly a leaf attached. they are smaller than navel oranges, but usually are larger than clementines. like the clementine, they are easy to peel. incredibly easy to peel. and the sections are plump, super sweet, and not pithy. i find them to be sweeter and juicier than clementines, not to mention slightly more satisfying. they are a beautful fruit, too, with bright orange skin. it's not just turkey and cranberries and squash and pumpkin pie right now, there is a thriving citrus season upon us, and it's not a bad thing with the concurrent arrival of cold and flu season to introduce more vitamin c into our lives. this is the high point of the satsuma season, pretty soon they will be gone from grocery stores and markets, a mere sweet memory. but, for now, they are here and they are delicious and i am a happy bird, full to the brim with vitamin c.

yam = yum.

okay, okay, it's time to get back to the sweet potato drawing board with red diane yams.

it's chilly. it's rainy. thanksgiving is thursday. what better time to get my festive on and play with sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, and cranberries? right? well, lucky for me, i'm smack dab in the middle of testing all the sweet potatoes i can get my hands on. so satsuma-imo, golden sweet, and beauregard down, it's on to good old diane. the red diane yam is a hybrid between the garnet and the beauregard yams. again, all of these are sweet potatoes and not yams at all. the diane is red on the outside with bright orange flesh on the inside. meaning she's high in beta-carotene and good for the eyes. even if looking at her she's not so good on the eyes. oh, the poor ugly sweet potato. thank god she is so gosh darn tasty, birds and tigers agree on this. through salty miso to tangy sweet cranberry, the sweet potato is doing us right.

cranberry orange garlic sweet potato and brussel sprout delight

1 cup rice (wild & brown mix)

garlic, 5 cloves

1 medium orange

cranberries, 1 bag

1 large red diane yam, peeled & cut into rounds

10 brussel sprouts, cut in half

2 cinnamon sticks

sea salt, to taste

in one pot, add rice, 2 cups water & 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic. cover. bring to boil. reduce heat & simmer, according to directions on rice (~40 minutes). once simmering for about 10 minutes, add 1 cinnamon stick.

in another pot, when rice is about halfway done, add 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped, sweet potatoes & brussel sprouts. add about an inch of water & 1 cinnamon stick. cover. bring to boil and reduce to simmer for about 10 minutes.

squeeze the juice of half an orange over sweet potatoes & brussel sprouts. add cranberries. place orange on top. cover and continue to simmer, until cranberries are soft and all vegetables are cooked through and tender.

combine vegetables with rice. squeeze remaining orange over mixture, season with salt, and enjoy.

hummus without chickpeas isn't really hummus, is it? but it's my favarite.

momentary pause on the root-toot-tuber seasonal express. this is, after all, california. and it turns out that the baja region of california and mexico have a pretty sweet heirloom vegetable season come november. do you know how hard it is to walk past a crate full of perfectly pretty pesticide free heirloom peppers? it is impossible. you'd have to be heartless & soulless & pretty darn near blind to do something that foolish. especially when these guys were grown in-state and are only $1.29/lb. come on, i had no choice but to step away from the sweet potato bins and pick some up. so then i decided the little baby rainbow carrot nuggets could not be left alone either. so cute, so fresh, also so cheap. i turned and caught sight of the mini kirby cucumbers and all of a sudden my theme became crystal clear. ladies and gentlemen, we have an adorable crudite on our hands.

now a crudite needs to be dipped. and so i had the inspiration to make hummus. then i had the inspiration to make hummus but without chickpeas. any bean, after all, can be mashed and blended. and so i grabbed a can of fava beans, which as a soaked and cooked bean, more closely resemble the shape and texture of a chickpea than say pinto or kidney or black beans do. here we go again with misnomers, technically fava beans are peas and not beans at all. but because they produce a "bean" inside their shell and fix nitrogen in the soil, we lump them in with legumes, instead of more accurately labeling them as vetches. whatever we call them, fava beans are one of the most ancient foods we have and are also very, very healthy. fava beans are a good source of fiber, vitamin a (skin, vision, growth, bone development), potassium (blood pressure and heart function), phosphorus (bones, teeth, helps the body utilize vitamins), the amino acid known as l-dopa, or dopamine (works as a neurotransmitter in the brain ), and thiamine (nerve function).

fava bean spread

1 can fava beans, drain & reserve a little bit of the liquid

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 lemon

1 tbs sea salt

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp turmeric

add fava beans, garlic & a little bit of the liquid from the beans in a blender. blend on "puree" until the mixture starts to become smooth.

add the juice of a lemon, salt, paprika and turmeric.

blend until it's the consistency you desire.

enjoy.

yes, it is that ridiculously easy.

(i mean, of course, if you wanted to take on the challenge, you could start with fresh fava beans, shell them, blanch them, skin them and then mash them. it would be more labor intensive and would give you an end product that would have a green color, like the fresh fava bean. it would be pretty. and it would no doubt be delicious. but sometimes birds get busy and the quick way is good enough. i'm just fine with my super quick can bean cheat.)

you can serve it right away. or you can let it chill and settle for a little while. you can serve it with fresh veggies as a dip for crudite. you can serve it with crackers or bread. you could layer it into a taco or burrito. it would go very well in a lot of middle eastern cuisine, i mean it would be great spread on kibby. i hope to incorporate it into a stuffed cabbage roll recipe at some point. it's pretty versatile. and, most importantly, it's easy peasy cheap and breezy. and the tiger likes it.

one potato, sweet potato, miso soup and more.

japanese sweet potato conquered, time to keep on keepin on the sweet potato trail...next stop golden sweet and beauregard yams. well, here we go again, both of these vegetables are called "yams" but are actually sweet potatoes. technically all "yams" grown in the united states are sweet potatoes. and yet we call them yams. because we can do whatever we want, right? this is america. freedom of speech. i'd rather just call a spade a spade, you know? but this yam misnomer tradition is far older and widespread than me, so i'm going to have to suck it up at some point and just accept that although i may buy and cook a lot of yams, i have still never actually bought or cooked a yam.

okay, let's be honest, i'm a bird on a budget trying to be green. reduce, reuse, recycle, my friends. a great place to do this is in the kitchen. so i decided my next adventure in yamville needed to make use of the large amount of leftover scallion and miso that i had from my first adventure in the land of sweet potato. so i decided to make a variation on a miso soup. i chose two very different types of sweet potato: the golden sweet and the beauregard. the golden sweet has light skin and light flesh. the beauregard has dark copper skin and bright orange flesh. the golden sweet yam is much milder and much starchier, acting & tasting a little bit like a potato and a turnip, while the beauregard is much sweeter, like a very sweet carrot. they worked in nice conjunction together in a soup. and again, paired well with the mild white miso.

sweet potato seaweed miso soup with rice

garlic (we used no less than 6 cloves in 1 pot of soup, but we also have a slight garlic addiction here, quantity is up to you), chopped finely

a handful of kombu seaweed (dried)

1/4 cup thai jasmine rice

1/2 cup hijiki seaweed (dried)

1 golden sweet yam, peeled & diced

1 beauregard yam, peeled & diced

1 small crown of broccoli, chopped

1 small head of choy sum, chopped

4 scallions, chopped

sea salt

1/2-3/4 cup white miso (again, depends on your taste. add 1/2 cup to start, add more if flavor isn't strong enough for you)

fill a large pot with 4 cups (or so) of water. add garlic & kombu seaweed. bring to a boil.

add rice. cover & simmer.

after 5 minutes, add sweet potatoes & hijiki.

when sweet potatoes are almost done, add the broccoli & choy sum. allow to simmer another 5 minutes or so.

add scallions, season with sea salt. simmer for a minute or two.

add miso, 1 tablespoon at a time, let it dissolve. allow this soup to simmer for just a couple of minutes.*

remove from heat.

enjoy.

*the key to miso soup is not allowing the miso to boil, hence adding it last, it will destroy the flavor and compromises the nutritional value and healing properties of the miso.

even your mama says you're ugly.

well, they sure as heck aren't pretty to look at on their own, but the sweet potato, full of vitamins a, c & b6, packs a delicious punch of good old fashioned nutrition, giving it an inner beauty. and it's what's on the inside that matters after all, isn't it? at least that's what everyone always tells me. wait...they mean it, right? it's not like they're just saying that to make me feel better about something else, are they? ??

ah, the sweet potato. which is different than a yam. which is not actually what we think is a yam. yams as we think of them are just varieties of the sweet potato. which have nothing to do with potatoes. yes, they are all indeed root vegetables, tubers, but these tubers, though they look mighty darn similar, originate from different botanical families. confused? why wouldn't you be. but, alas, "what's in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" - right, juliet? well, i intend to find out. or try to find out. or just eat a lot of sweet potatoes. i mean yams. i mean sweet potatoes. i mean, well, i don't know what i mean. but it's root and tuber time of year and root-toot-tuber season seems like as good a time as any to dive headfirst into learning about these sweet ugly guys.

so there are something like 400 varieties of sweet potatoes out there. and sweet potatoes are not necessarily sweet, nor are they potatoes. the true sweet potato actually has a flavor closer to a chestnut, with white flesh, not the orange flesh we think of. the satsuma-imo version of these is quite popular in japan. and so in my investigation into the sweet potato and yam world, this is where i shall begin, and tonight i dove right in with the japanese sweet potato, a variety i had never tried before. the tiger and i both enjoyed it. like my research promised, it did have a chestnut-ty flavor to it, not the sweet, carrot-ty flavor that garnet yams, for instance, have. it was really super scrumptious and delicious with a salty, tangy miso-based spread, a surprisingly mostly savory and just a little bit sweet take on the tuber of a thousand names and mistake monikers.


miso garlic scallion japanese sweet potato
preheat oven to 400 degrees
wash & scrub a japanese sweet potato (pictured above, purple skin with white flesh)
prick sweet potato with a fork & roast in oven (about 1 hour or until soft)

miso garlic scallion spread:
3 tbs white miso
2 cloves garlic minced
1 green scallion chopped finally
in small bowl or ramekin, mash the miso, garlic and scallions until well mixed into a paste

remove sweet potato from oven
slice down the middle
spread the miso paste on the potato
fold the potato halves back together to allow the paste to melt into the flesh a little bit
enjoy.

squash? soup? yes!

i was once afraid of squash. very afraid. i let it pass by my plate every thanksgiving year in and year out. strategically seated adjacent to my aunt joanie, who was a notorious squash hater, it was easy to keep it moving right along as the serving dishes of vegetables made their way around the long dining room table. and thus i cheated myself out of the glory of squash for at least the first 10 years of my life. luckily, i am not the girl i was back then - and i say that for many reasons, my neglection of squash and other weird eating-isms just a small fraction of my many childhood regrets, let's just hit the tip of the iceberg and say there are a lot of pin-rolled jeans and curling iron bang mishaps i am a better person without. so, now, here i am, by no means perfect, but no longer getting up at 5:30am to shower, scrunch my permed hair, curl my bangs, and then shellac the whole affair in a crap ton of cfc-rampant hair spray, so i'm going to have to claim a significant degree of self-improvement. and i am proud to say that in my *maturity* i love squash and no longer believe that soup only comes out of a can. and those two factors made tonight's early bird venture in the kitchen possible.

it is late october. even in berkeley, california that means pumpkins, squash, gourds, squash, pumpkins and more pumpkins. edible, decorative and everything in between. so i decided to pick out a lovely butternut squash and make a hearty fall soup. it met with the tiger's approval, which is good because we will be eating it for days. soup is simple and fast and satisfying. and it seems no matter how hard i try to streamline a recipe, always makes a metric ton. the key to the success of this soup came in reserving about a cup of butternut squash and steaming it separately while the soup simmered so that i could mash it (using a potato masher) with fresh sage, fresh thyme, coarse sea salt and pepper. adding the mashed squash mixture to the soup thickened it and really distributed and intensified the flavors from the herbs, so it didn't matter that i didn't have the time or inclination to let it simmer for hours.

butternut squash, kale and white bean soup

4 cups vegetarian broth + 4 cups water

4 cloves garlic, chopped finely

sea salt

pepper

fresh sage

fresh thyme

1/2 onion, diced

1 butternut squash - peel & cube: 3 cups for soup, remainder set aside to steam & mash

2 cups chopped fresh kale

1 can navy beans

in large pot, bring broth, water, garlic, pepper, sea salt and some sage & thyme to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer.

add 3 cups of the cubed butternut squash and the diced onion, allow to simmer until squash is tender.

meanwhile, steam remaining squash separately.

once squash is tender, add kale and beans (including liquid), continue to simmer.

season simmering soup with sea salt, pepper, sage and thyme.

mash steamed squash with coarse sea salt, black pepper, chopped sage leaves and thyme. add to soup once kale is tender and cooked through.

stir. allow to sit for a few minutes before serving.

enjoy.

rainbow roots.

roots are in season. and i am not just trying to justify the fact that i haven't highlighted my hair since before summer started. i am talking about vegetables. it is fall, even if berkeley somehow always feels like heaven outside and there are no leaves changing color and no threat of the first frost, and that means the roots have it. carrots, turnips, potatoes - it is indeed your time to shine. so tonight i let rainbow colored carrots take the driver's seat and we enjoyed ginger garlic carrots with baby bok choy, black beans, and rice noodles in a rice wine vinegar and blood orange reduction.

rainbow carrots are so so good. and what is the sweetest part of cooking with them is that they provide such a wide range of antioxidants. we normally eat carrots for their vitamin a and beta-carotene. which, yes, in and of itself is a good enough reason to include them in the diet. (i mean mr. magoo is cool and all, but who really wants to *be* him) but! there are different compounds with different health benefits in each color of the carrot rainbow. so cook up a bunch of rainbow carrots and not only are you getting all those eye sight saving vitamin a and beta-carotene benefits in the orange carrots, you are also getting lycophene, which is what causes the red carrots to look red, and is a carotene known for its heart disease and cancer fighting properties, xanthophylls from the yellow carrots that are pigments similar to beta-carotene which also support good eye health, and the anthocyanins in purple carrots, which are powerful antioxidants in a totally different class from other carotenes. one vegetable, so many different sources of nutrition. one stop shopping that doesn't require a strip mall or concrete jungle megastore. that is an idea this bird will always get behind.

ginger garlic carrots with baby bok choy, black beans, and rice noodles in a rice wine vinegar and blood orange reduction

1 bunch rainbow carrots

2 small bunches baby bok choy

1 bundle or serving of rice noodles

4 cloves garlic

fresh ginger

3/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 blood orange

sea salt, to taste

wash, cut tops off & halve carrots

wash & cut baby bok choy at bottom steam to separate leaves

chop garlic cloves

thinly slice ginger

open & drain 1 can of black beans

steam carrots and bok choy with ginger and garlic (save about 1/3 of the garlic and ginger for sauce). drain.

prepare rice noodles. drain.

in small frying pan, heat garlic and ginger, add rice wine vinegar and juice of the blood orange. cover, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer. (*since there is no thickening agent, you are technically infusing your rice wine vinegar base with the blood orange, garlic and ginger flavors, but it is still reducing as some of it evaporates in the steam. nerd alert, i know.)

mix noodles, veggies, beans, and sauce. add sea salt to taste. enjoy.

yau-za!

yay for yau. i decided to explore my *choy*ces and try something new, yau choy. mostly because the handwritten sign looked like it said "yay choy" and i thought that was funny. and partly because it was a really pretty looking green and i was curious. so i steamed the yau choy with bean sprouts, onion, white zucchini and red pepper. then i tossed the veggies and vietnamese brown rice noodles in a sauce i made with with garlic, fresh ginger, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and the juice of a blood orange. and, well, wouldn't you know, yau did indeed make me say yay.

let the veggies do the work, i'm tired.

last night was a clean out the fridge lazy bird style dinner. i had a crisper full of assorted random vegetables and little enthusiasm for anything complicated, so i took what i had, grabbed a lemon off the tree in the backyard, and threw together what ended up being a rather delicious and satisfying meal. i've come to believe that fresh produce, pure and simple, is like that go-to little black dress every woman doesn't feel complete without having in her closet. you know it's going to save you, you know it's nothing special or fancy or pretentious or ostentatious, but you know it works and is fail proof. so i quartered and boiled some small purple and yellow potatoes and steamed some okra, red bell pepper, onion, summer squash and garlic. then i tossed it all together with coarse sea salt, smoked paprika, black pepper, turmeric, cumin, a little cayenne and a little cholula hot sauce, and the juice of a lemon i picked from my own back yard. it was done quickly and it was delicious. had i thought about it ahead of time i probably would have screwed it up and it wouldn't have turned out so well. had i not been using such fresh and in season vegetables, it never would have stood on its on so simply. you really can't go wrong with fresh produce, even when you are tired and lazy and at a lack for inspiration.

*it doesn't hurt to enjoy lazy bird dinners while watching an episode of strangers with candy.

**it actually doesn't ever hurt to enjoy anything while watch an episode of strangers with candy.

quickles.

i bravely vowed to experiment with pickling over the weekend, and it is with tremendous joy and satisfaction that i report that i a) lived up to my promise and b) the pursuit of pickles went better than anticipated, in fact it was a pretty darn near perfect success! and it certainly turned this early bird into a pickle pirate. tasting those pickles and then registering the fact that they tasted good was a moment of satisfaction on the scale of the first time all those hours of relentless flipping and falling, flipping and falling, flipping and falling, over and over again on the front lawn stopped turning out mild concussions and grass stains and turned out an actual front handspring - an actual, real-deal front handspring, just like almost every other girl my age could do. yeah, it was a pretty basic move, more or less the bottom rung on the ladder (okay, just a slight step up from cartwheel and round-off that really you weren't even allowed to call yourself a girl if you couldn't pull off) as far as physical prowess and gymnastic ability went. but that was the source of the overwhelming pride and relief i felt when i finally pulled it off, it meant that i was at least as good as pretty much everybody else. i had not failed the simple. or maybe that was just my childhood, anyway, i hope you get my point. i have loved pickles my whole life. i mean, seriously LOVED pickles. see, my sister and i had an understood, undiscussed food divorce as very young children. just 13 months apart in age and always together, we decided to assert our independence and individuality through food. what one liked, the other was mandated not to like. somehow, in this bargain, i got chocolate and condiments (ketchup, pickles, mustard, mayonnaise - i got them ALL and loved them ALL) and my sister got cheese, the choice of vanilla or strawberry for her ice cream, and a loathing of condiments so strong, especially pickles, that if a pickle touched her plate she would dissolve into tears and be unable to eat. as an adult, i have grown into my adoration of the pickle and to explore its boundaries, to go beyond cucumbers and into other vegetables such as okra, carrots, green beans and into other cultural cuisines such as japanese oshinko and korean kimchi. and, so, as i have come to embrace how much i love to make food, how much satisfaction comes in the planning, the preparation, the presentation, the act and art of sharing it with others and giving them both something to enjoy and something that will nourish them, i have also come to yearn to master the art of pickling. it has always seemed like a natural fit for me. and so i have always found an excuse or been presented with a circumstance that has delayed my dabbling. because i have always needed and wanted it to be right. as simple as pickling is, i needed it to be perfect, i needed to be prepared, i needed to not fail. and so it took until this sunday for me to open this new chapter of my culinary life, the pickle.

i started this weekend with what are known as *quick pickles* - they marinate fast, they are meant to be kept in the fridge and consumed quickly. it was far easier to start experimenting with spice and vinegar and brines in this medium where i didn't have to worry about properly sterilizing jars or properly sealing them once filled or any of that *precise* stuff that comes with preservation. for *quick pickles* all you need is:

the vegetable(s) you are going to pickle

a jar with a lid (great chance to recycle jars from your pantry and cupboards)

vinegar (most often white, sometimes cider, depends on the pickle)

spices

so what pickles did i make? i made quickle versions of a basic dill pickle spear, and rick's picks windy city wasabeans and smokra. i have to give credit where credit is due, i am an honest pirate. but i'm also a pirate, and i am not about to pay $12 a jar for okra pickles, and so it was only a matter of time until i taught myself how to do it, sorry rick. i found a recipe for a quick pickle of okra using smoked paprika and inspired by rick's picks pickles. the brine deviated a bit from the specific ingredients in the rick's picks' version, so i used the amounts in the recipe as a quantity guideline and substituted with ingredients from the original smokra. i then went ahead and kept that as my base brine outline, and just swapped out all of the spices for the other two recipes. it's very much a matter of taste and trial. essentially, it's packing your jar with the clean ready vegetable(s) to be pickled, bringing 1 cup of vinegar with a combination of spices to a boil for about a minute, then pouring the hot brine over the vegetables into the jar. if the pickles are not covered compelety in liquid, then add water until they are. put the lid on the jar, close that puppy up, let it cool to room temperature and then stick it in the fridge. if your brine covers the pickles, most likely it will take 24 hours or less until you have perfect pickles. if you add water, it takes another 12-24 hours for the flavor to kick in.

smokra

in jar:

small fresh okra (i fit about 14 pieces into my jar)

2 dried chili peppers

brine:

1 cup cider vinegar

1-2 tbs smoked paprika

1 tbs sea salt

1 tsp mustard seed

1/2 -1 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2-1 tsp chili flakes

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp peppercorns

garlic - at least 2 cloves smashed up well

wasabeans

in jar:

fresh clean green and yellow beans

2 dried chili peppers

brine:

1 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1-2 tbs wasabi powder

1 tbs ginger

1/2-1 tsp chili flakes

1 tsp peppercorns

garlic - at least 2 cloves smashed up well

dill spears

in jar:

quarter pickling cucumbers into spears, stand in jar

sprigs of fresh dill

3 cloves smashed garlic

brine:

1 cup white vinegar

6 cloves garlic (2 smashed well, 2 sliced, 2 chopped)

1 tbs sea salt

1 tbs mustard seed

1 tbs peppercorns

1 tsp tumeric

1 tsp cumin

chopped fresh dill

and, there you have it, quickles that will knock your socks off, are super fresh, super easy, super satisfying and super way less than $12 a jar.

this 'tash don't suck.

inspired by this amazing red corn i've found and the locally grown okra that keeps calling my name (long held dreams of pickling get realized this weekend. no excuses, no delays. standby for pickle posts galore in the coming weeks), i decided to try my hand at an improvised take on vegetarian succotash. it was exceptionally easy and works well hot or cold. bonus.

1 clove of garlic, chopped finely

the kernels of 2 ears of corn on the cob (1 red, 1 white)

1/2 cup okra cut into pieces

1/2 medium size red bell pepper, diced

1/2 cup shelled lima beans

1/4 cup onion, diced

salt

pepper

smoked paprika

spray medium-sized pan with nonstick spray and start cooking garlic over medium high heat. add the corn, okra, pepper, lima beans and onion. season with salt, pepper, and paprika. add about 1/2" of water, bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until the vegetables are slightly tender and cooked through. drain excess water and season to taste.

so simple. the hardest part is shelling the lima beans, since they have a much tougher pod than english peas do, but it's not that hard. and, if they do hang you up, a simple trick is to use a small paring knife to make one clean incision along the seam of the pod and it will pop apart super easily for you.

and there, my faithful friends, you have succotash that doesn't suck.

red-dy or not.

is that corn on the cob? yes.

is it really red? yes.

you can eat red corn? yes.

does it taste like corn? yes.

really? YES.

having grown up in new england, i saw a fair amount of red corn. however, it was always dried and usually as part of some sort of thanksgiving or autumnal decoration. and it was referred to not as red corn, but as the not-so-politically correct name "indian corn" - a sloppy nickname derived from the fact that native americans were the first to grow the corn plant in north america. so, imagine my curiosity when strolling through the produce section i saw three bins of corn: white, yellow and red. red? really? of course i had to buy an ear, cook it, and taste it myself. well, it was delicious. it tasted just like a fresh sweet ear of any other variety of corn (white, yellow, bi-color). and what makes the kernels red are antioxidants (the same anthocyanins that give other red foods like pomegranate seeds or red grapes their hue), so not only is it more visually exciting than the yellow corn on the cob we've all grown accustomed to, it is also healthier. red corn - looks better and is better for you? well, there you have it, sometimes looks do make all the difference.

i'll take that to go. please.

insta-picnic saturday day trip with the tiger.

so yesterday marked the one month anniversary of arriving here in beautiful, bodacious, bountiful berkeley, and, thanks a to rather brilliant last minute idea of ryan's, it found us on the most amazing day trip road trip around a little piece of totally new to us northern california. and if you are an early bird like me just trying to give a greener living a go, day trip road trip means PICNIC! the whole last minuteness of the plan left me in a position where ryan was picking up the car at 9a and i had from 830a when my 7a yoga class ended until we hit the road, which clearly we wanted to do as early as possible, to plan a menu, procure the ingredients and prepare it. it felt like a crazy gameshow. and i love crazy gameshows, so challenge accepted. let the games begin.

(*and when i say let the games begin, believe you me, i honestly saw myself standing in front of the basket-o-ingredients on "chopped", awaiting the secret ingredient reveal on "iron chef", and also crouching down to get a good spin in on the wheel in "the price is right". i know, that last fantasy has nothing to do with food, but as soon as i feel like i'm on a gameshow, i'm spinning that wheel, holding plinko chips, or thinking "no whammy no whammy and...STOP!" yesterday was a wheel day, come hell or high water i was gonna get myself $1 or land on a green spot).

okay, the clock is officially ticking. i hit shattuck avenue after yoga and make a b-line for the berkeley bowl, which opens at 9a. there is a line formed of people patiently waiting, making small talk, getting to know one another. and when they do open the doors, the berkeley bowl employee says, "good morning. be good to each other." yeah, toto, we are definitely not in kansas (*brooklyn) anymore. i've got my shopping list in my head and a basket on my arm. i had decided to try a variation on a potato salad and shrimp for dinner. it seemed easy and pliable enough that i could do something new and tasty with the old potato salad standby and that the food would be cooler-friendly. plus, i had noticed the day before that there were these totally amazing little turnip and carrot-like potatoes from new zealand that come in red, yellow, and apricot called oka potatoes. they were so adorable and strange looking at the same time that i absolutely had to find an excuse to use them. what better excuse than potato salad? and they are so small, they will take no time at all to cook. that, my dear friends, is what the early bird calls a *win-win*. so i grab them, the rest of the stuff that i need, hit the checkout, and have earned an invitation to round 2.

round 2 is all about improvisation. i've got this rough notion in my head of what i want to make. i start getting my ingredients sorted and ready to go, my pots boiling, and my chopping on. the clock is ticking, the car is waiting, and i am cooking...and, then, relatively early on in my culinary endoeavors, i abandon my original thought for the salad dish, which would have been a mexican-flavored version of the classic indian potato and pea dish aloo matar. i thought that since it also has tomato in its base, masala being the gravy for that dish, it would be easy to switch from masala to salsa, a natural substitute to take it in a whole new direction. visions of ethnic fusion danced in my head. (so enticing! so dangerous! so sure to earn me bonus points from the judges if i can pull it off!) but, instead, as i start to season and put together the vegetables for the potato salad in one bowl and construct the salsa in another, i come to the realization that i was biting off more than i could chew and making this about a too hasty leap to glory and that, for the sake of the meal, it was better to keep the two separate. but equal. definitely equal. what kind of person do you think i am? so having failed to unite mexico and india, i improvise a smoked paprika based potato salad with green peas, sugar peas, okra and red bell pepper. i also marinate shrimp in garlic, sea salt, smoked paprika, cholula hot sauce and lime juice. and, of course, i make a large batch of my infamous salsa (see previous post). the bell dinged. chefs step away from the stoves. round 2 was over. but i didn't even need to wait for the judges to weigh in, i knew i had won. it looked good, it smelled good, it tasted good. i packed it all up into portable containers, then i packed those containers into the cooler. and voila! mission accomplished. homemade, locally-inspired, delicious and healthy picnic for two: DONE. i will take my imaginary prize and accolades, and i'll shoot my post-win wrap up confessional later, this bird has got a day trip to get started...

and i am pleased to report that it all survived a day in the cooler quite beautifully. and it all tasted fantastic when we finally enjoyed our picnic dinner at the end of the day.

this recipe could change your life.

okay, there are few things i will brag about. my salsa is one of them. so, i decided to take advantage of the abundance of tomatoes at berkeley bowl. (i mean, seriously, look at those pictures it's like you've died and gone to tomato heaven in there right now) and the 99 cent bag-o-produce that included bell peppers and a jalapeno (yes, berkeley bowl has this awesome bargain produce section with 99 cent bags of fruits and vegetables that either aren't that pretty or are nearing the end of their freshness. it's amazing the goodies you can find, especially if you hit in the morning before it's been ransacked) and make some salsa. it's quite easy to make, it's all in the chopping and the freshness of the ingredients. so if you're willing to gather the produce and show a little patience while you chop it all, you can have salsa that will knock your socks off. and then you can take that salsa, top flounder with it, bake it and that meal will help someone fall in love with you. and by *you* maybe i mean *i* and, yes, that is a true story. i cannot guarantee the same results for everyone, but it's still damn good salsa - that stands on its own as a salad, makes one heck of a dip for chips, will send your burrito or taco over the top, and also goes fantastically with fish. like a single girl playing the field, you've got options.

salsa fresca

fresh tomatoes (anything goes as long as they are fresh, i always like to mix it up and use a combination of tomatoes. in this batch i used 2 medium red tomatoes, 1 large beefsteak tomato, and 1 large yellow heirloom tomato)
1/2 medium sized onion (you can use a red onion or a sweet onion, whatever you prefer or have handy)
3 or 4 scallions
garlic (to taste, i like a lot so use 3 or 4 cloves)
1 jalapeno pepper
1 small bunch cilantro
2 limes
salt

chop the ingredients and add to a large mixing bowl, in this order (perhaps it's superstition. perhaps it's just a matter of if it ain't broke don't fix it, but this is the order i always go in and i do believe it makes a difference. no matter what, the jalapeno and cilantro should go in last):
garlic (chop/mince finely)
onion (small dice)
scallion
tomato (small dice)
jalapeno (seed first, if you like heat throw some seeds into the bowl, otherwise discard seeds and mince)
cilantro

stir the chopped ingredients gently with a large spoon to mix, then squeeze the juice of the limes onto the salsa and salt to taste. stir gently and serve immediately or store in fridge in airtight container for later enjoyment.

**disclaimer! caution! #1: man oh man, hot peppers are no joke, so please watch it. make sure you wash your hands well as soon as you are done handling the jalapeno. and whatever you do, don't touch your face or eyes.**

**disclaimer! caution! #2: this salsa may ruin your ability to enjoy salsa that comes in a jar and has been sitting on a store shelf. so prepare and eat at your own risk.**

sea, i told you so.

from sea to shining sea. today i returned to the west coast and my new home of berkeley after a few days on the east coast. much to the dismay of my weary traveling self (i flew out of boston at 6am this morning, which meant hanging out at the airport after the last movie in town got out at 2am), the berkeley bowl was closed today because of the holiday. so new adventures in fresh produce will have to sit tight and wait another turn in a day or so. instead of adventures in new culinary frontiers, my weary, not overly hungry self decided to turn to quick easy out of the pantry cupboard but healthy as humanly possible tonight. yes, that translates to seaweed.

i love seaweed. from the nori that wraps sushi rolls to the kombu that is the basis for the broth of miso soup (and a ton of other soups) to arame, wakame and hijiki. i can't get enough. i like things that are salty or tangy. and seaweed fits both those criteria. there are many types of seaweed. and many methods to prepare them. but they are all unbelievably healthy. in fact, seaweed has been called the most nutritionally complete food that there is. i will get into more detail on that later. first, dinner.

seaweed is simple. most often it comes dried and only requires soaking in water for a minimum of 15 minutes to revitalize it. you could stop right there, drain it and use it as is. alone. in a soup. on a salad. or add it to any other dish that would be complemented by seaweed. tonight i *recreated* (and by recreate i do mean improvise based on recollection) one of my favorite sea vegetable preparations - that of angelica kitchen in my old neighborhood of the east village in manhattan. angelica kitchen essentially soaks and then simmers hijiki and arame in a combination of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar with onion and carrot. i have only glanced at the recipe and would not dare to betray their copyright (if you need their exact recipe, by all means please go buy their cookbook, it would be a terrific addition to anyone's cookbook collection), but that is the gist of it. and when it comes to rice wine vinegar and soy sauce, i definitely measure via eyeball and to taste.

basic simple sea vegetables

1/3 cup arame

1/3 cup hijiki

1/4 cup carrot, sliced thinly (matchsticks)

1/4 cup onion, sliced thinly

organic tamari reduced sodium gluten free soy sauce (to taste, i used ~1/3 cup)

organic rice wine vinegar (again, to taste, i used ~1/3 cup)

in a bowl, soak arame & hijiki in cool water for 15 minutes. drain most of the liquid.
in a saucepan, simmer onion & carrot in 1/2" of water for 5 minutes. drain the water from the pan.
add the drained arame & hijiki, along with remaining liquid to onion & carrot in the saucpan.
add the soy sauce & vinegar (and a touch of sea salt if you so desire).
bring to a boil, then immediately reduce heat and allow to simmer on low for at least 15 minutes. drain any excess liquid.

you may serve these right away hot or you may store them for later use. they are great on salads or with rice or grains.

**i do need to take a moment to lay down the disclaimer that hijiki can be difficult to find. most grocery stores will have at least some seaweed, usually nori for sushi rolling and some combination of arame, wakame or kombu. in new york, when i did stumble upon hijiki, which is by far my favorite seaweed, it was astronomically expensive (read anywhere from $8-12 per package was the price range i often saw). well, just when i thought the bay area couldn't make me any happier, anna and i went to a supermarket in japantown, where i found hijiki for $1.99. ONE DOLLAR AND NINETY NINE CENTS. i don't say that to brag about my good fortune, but, rather, to advise that you try to find a real japanese market if you can and look for hijiki there. you might actually be able to afford it.**

okay, so what's so special about seaweed? pretty much everything since *sea vegetables* possess the broadest range of minerals of any food. every mineral in the ocean is absorbed by seaweed. it contains all of the essential minerals for the function of the human body: potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, iron, iodine and zinc. it also contains trace elements that are not commonly found in other foods. the same is true for vitamins. seaweed is loaded with vitamin c, beta-carotene (vitamin a), vitamin b1, b2, b6, niacin, pantothenic acid, folic acid, and, most impressively, trace amounts of vitamin b12, which almost never exists in land vegetables.

i know, you are thinking wow these sea vegetables seem more special than a double rainbow, but, WHAT DOES IT MEAN? well, i'll tell you and i'll do it without a youtube video, without auto-tune, and without selling out to microsoft. read on.

seaweed removes toxins from the body, aids in digestion, metabolism and thyroid function, boosts the immune system, nourishes the brain, fights heart disease, promotes healthy hair, and has cancer fighting and preventative properties.

all of the sea vegetables i've discussed in this post are classified as brown algae. these plants can detoxify the body. in nerd speak, they are high in alginic acid and bind with any heavy metals in the intestines. this leaves those heavy metals indigestible and they are eliminated from the body.

the minerals found in sea vegetables, like arame, are thought to promote healthy hair and hair growth.

seaweed contains lignans, which are phytonutrients that have been shown to help prevent or slow cancer growth. they do this in two major ways. first, by inhibiting angiogenesis (blood cell growth) and, therefore, the process through which fast-growing tumors send out cells to metastasise in other areas of the body. and secondly, by inhibiting estrogen synthesis in fat cells and, therefore, cutting the risk of breast cancer, particularly in post-menopausal women who synthesize estrogen in fat cells. seaweed also contains folic acid and connections have been made between diets high in folic acid and a decreased risk and occurrence of colon cancer.

sea vegetables are the richest natural source of iodine, a mineral that is essential to human life. the thyroid gland adds iodine to the amino acid tyrosine to create the thyroid hormones thyroxine and triiodothyronine. the body cannot synthesize these hormones, which regulate metabolism in every cell of the human body and, therefore, play a role in all physiological functions, without sufficient iodine.

the folic acid in seaweed prevents a number of birth defects, including spina bifida.

seaweed is good for the heart and cardiovascular system because of its folic acid and magnesium content. folic acid is required to break down homocysteine, which is a dangerous intermediate chemical produced during the methylation cycle (*long story short, one of the most important cellular cycles in the human body, one which produces a wide variety of chemicals that the body needs to function and carry out other cellular functions) that has the ability to damange blood vessel walls and in high levels is associated with a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. seaweed is an excellent source of magnesium, which is known to reduce high blood pressure and prevent heart attacks.

whoa sally sells sea shells down by the sea shore, that's a lot. and that's not even all of it, or even an adequate exploration and explanation of all of it. but, it's more than enough to make the point that seaweed is good and, if you haven't already done so, i highly recommend that you go explore the wonderful world of sea vegetables. they couldn't be simpler to prepare and they couldn't be healthier for you. it's a win win.

finders keepers. losers, well there are no losers.

sometimes being nosy and looking around leads to trouble. other times, it leads to grapes! yesterday morning i came out of the lake, walked back up the dock, poked around the vines on the rocks and came across these beautiful red grapes. so perfect, so pretty, so right there. *local* defined. that sure as heck is my idea of *convenience* food. maybe, hopefully, that's what we will all think of someday in the not too distant future.

cheaters sometimes win.

for the first time in a long time i baked something this morning. for the first time ever i baked something that is gluten free.

and it tastes delicious!

how did this come to be? well, i'm glad you asked. i have been hankering to explore the world of gluten free baking now that i have a big kitchen and access to so many wonderful ingredients. but i have been nervous and reluctant to try. i've heard rumors about such gluten free baking endeavors. the rumors weren't good. it seemed like it might be difficult and set up for failure. would it come out like a brick? or a tub of paste? how would i pull this off without a vat of canola oil or any of the other cover-up-the-lack-of-flavor-by-adding-a-ton-of-fat substitutes i've seen listed on boxes and in recipes? well, it turned out all i needed to do was come home to massachusetts, go to the local grocery store and buy the gluten free baking for dummies box. substitute egg whites for eggs, applesauce for oil, bananas for canned pumpkin, add some blueberries, and you've got blueberry banana bread! and it's gluten free and dairy free! and literally could not have been any easier to make!!

blueberry banana bread
*disclaimer: i used a gluten free quick bread & muffin mix. i am a cheater.*

1 package gluten free quick bread & muffin mix (market basket brand)
3 large cage-free organic egg whites
1 1/2 cup mashed ripe organic bananas
1/2 pint fresh local blueberries
1/4 cup unsweetened natural applesauce

preheat oven to 325 degrees. spray loaf pan with non-stick spray.
wash the blueberries and mash the bananas (3 bananas will yield 1 1/2 cups mashed)..
in a large bowl, mix bread mix, egg whites, applesauce, and bananas.
mix well.
stir in blueberries.
pour into loaf pan and bake for 1 - 1 1/2 hours (*package says to bake for 1 hour, it took my bread almost an hour and a half to cook all the way through)

cute cukes.

what's cooler than a cucumber? a little round yellow one.

hey ma, look what i found! it's called a lemon cucumber, that's cucumis sativus for you latin lovers. it looks kind of like a summer squash, heirloom tomato, and acorn squash got freaky and decided to pull a madonna and tell the raging jealous zucchini, "papa don't preach, i'm keeping my baby."

but.

it turns out it's just a regular old variety of cucumber. called lemon because of the color and shape and small size, not for its taste. it actually tastes just like a sweet cucumber. i don't know, people seem to think cucumbers can be bitter, i personally love them and think they are a very refreshing and very mild, so it's hard for me to relate. anti-nukes i can get behind, anti-cukes i just don't understand. but, for those who sometimes avoid regular old green cukes for fear of a bitter flavor, these lemon cucumbers are touted for their (even) milder and sweeter taste. so these might be the cucumber that changes your mind.

i found these guys at the local farmer's market in gloucester, ma. they were grown organically on a farm in nearby dracut, ma. i had no idea what they were, there was no signage, so i was thinking weird squashish thing, which i was prepared to purchase and try, but the farmer told me, "that's a lemon cucumber" and even though this weird little yellow thing had me at first sight (i mean they are so cute, who could resist?!), now there was no going back. i had to see if this round yellow vegetable in my hand was, in fact, anything like a cucumber. so i paid the farmer, threw the lemon cuke in my bag and made my way back to my mom's house.

and i'll be darned, if that lemon cucumber doesn't look just like a cucumber when you slice it! and taste just like one when you eat it! well, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, chances are, it's a duck. and, so, it seems that i do indeed have myself a cucumber here. from what i just researched, this cucumber variety tends to be a little harder to find at markets, but fairly easy to grow as plants. so guess what i intend to plant?

plums 101.

plum [pluhm]: the plum belongs to the "prunus" genus of plants and are relatives of the peach, nectarine and almond. they are considered "drupes", a term which describes fruits whose seeds are surrounded by hard stone pits. when dried, plums are known as prunes. the plum season extends from may through october, with the japanese varieties first to hit the market from may and peaking in august, followed by the european varieties in the fall. few fruits comes in such a panaroma of colors as the plum and its hybrid offspring.

apriums & pluots.
these are hybrid fruits which are genetic combinations of plums and apricots. we have fruit geneticist floyd zaiger, a uc davis graduate and a nebraska-born, iowa-raised biologist, to thank for these creations.

apriums: aprium were first produced by zaiger in the late 1980s and are a complex cross of plums and apricots, which require several generations of crossed to create the new fruit. genetically speaking, apriums are 1/4 plum and 3/4 apricot. they resemble apricots on the outside and have a sweet taste, more intensely apricot than plum. they are grown on planted trees (largely in santa clara county, san jose, california - hence their abundance at my market in berkeley, california) and are smaller than most apricots.

pluots: pluots were first produced by zaiger in the late 20th century and are a complex cross of plums and apricots, genetically speaking, pluots are 2/3 plum and 1/3 apricot. they resemble plums on the outside and have an intense, sweet taste, due to a high sugar content, and fleshy pulp. like apriums, pluots are also grown in california. there are many varieties of pluots including: crimson sweet, dapple dandy, dinosaur egg, early dapple, emerald drop, flavor delight, flavor fall, falvor finale, flavor grenade, flavor heart, flavor jewel, flavor king, flavor prince, flavor queen, flavor rich, flavor royal, flavor supreme, flavorosa, geo pride, raspberry jewel, red ray, spash, sweet treat, and tropical plumana. (i'm pretty certain i have actually seen all of this list at berkeley bowl over the last 2 weeks)

plump perfection.

oh the berkeley bowl. where local produce is abundant. and mindblowing. i will not say i wasn't warned. i was. in fact, the plum phenomenon that is upon us, i was specifically told about in late june by a friend who had learned of my upcoming relocation from brooklyn to the bay. he told me i would have to go to berkeley bowl. and that the produce section would only have things fresh and in season and that, for instance, at plum time there would be aisles of more varieties of plums than i could imagine. and wouldn't you know, here i am, it is plum season, and berkeley bowl has aisles and aisles of plums and pluots of more varieties than i could imagine. varieties i have never heard of before. from dapple dandy to dinosaur egg to red rose and dozens in between. aren't they purty?